A pentraxin protein is one of protein groups. The pentraxin protein is involved in calcium-dependent ligand binding and has a plane β-structure. The word “pentraxin” is derived from the Greek words for five (penta) and berries (ragos). The pentraxin protein is formed with five monomers arranged in a regular pentagon shape and has a diameter of about 9.5 nm and a height of about 3.5 nm. A relatively small pentraxin protein includes a serum amyloid P component (SAP) and a C-reactive protein (CRP). A relatively large pentraxin protein includes PTX3 (cytokine regulatory molecule) and other nervous proteins.
The CRP is one of representative acute-phase reactive proteins for tissue damage or inflammation in mammals. The CRP is used as a diagnosis factor for various inflammatory diseases and cardiac infarction. The SAP is a vertebrate protein, which is a precursor of the amyloid component P, and observed in all types of amyloid deposits for glomerular basement membranes and elastic fibers in blood vessels. The SAP is an important molecule marker for the Alzheimer disease and utilized for the disease diagnosis.
With respect to a conventional method for detection of a C-reactive protein, there have been reported a method using an antibody (Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2004-0064054), a method using a phosphocholine ligand (U.S. Pat. No. 0,246,522 and British Patent No. 02217335), and other methods. In case of using the antibody, a high cost for preparing an antibody is required. In order to maintain activity of an antibody, it is necessary to manage whether the activity is deteriorated, using a special storage method. In case of using the phosphocholine liqand, an intermediate to fix the ligand to a protein, agarose gel, polystyrene, or others is needed.
In order to overcome the problems, many researchers have put forth their efforts in developing detection methods using a molecularly imprinted polymer having excellent stability, compared to an antibody. Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a method for preparing a molecularly imprinted polymer to increase an effect of detection of a C-reactive protein, which is a representative example of pentraxin proteins. To the end, the inventors of the present disclosure developed a novel molecularly imprinting technology using a phosphocholine ligand, by synthesizing styrene-phosphocholine ligands including a phosphocholine group designed to be polymerized with styrene that is a crosslink agent, and inducing a polymerization reaction of the crosslink agent in the state that the styrene-phosphocholine ligands are simultaneously bound to five phosphocholine ligand binding sites present in a C-reactive protein.